Dynamic values for journal templates

[cosmicboots]

Issues

• I have checked existing issues and there are no existing ones with the same request.

Feature description

It would be nice to be able to have the journal template contain special values that get replaced when the new daily journal files are created.

Below would be and example showing a possible date substitution.

I really like the journal feature, and I think adding this (or something close to it) would greatly improve the template functionality.

I have an oversimplified concept working here: cosmicboots@e510d1e

Help

Yes

Implementation help

Past configuring my editor, I'm fairly new to Lua.

I would also like some guidance on how this feature should be structured from a high level, so it fits in with the rest of the code base.

[pysan3]

Hi @cosmicboots

Not a solution directly implemented in this plugin but I have made an external module to create templates for norg file with dynamic values via LuaSnip.

https://github.com/pysan3/neorg-templates

[gegnew]

Is there a good way to hook pysan3/neorg-templates into the :Neorg journal ... commands, so that the template is used automatically?

Edit:

I'm using an autocmd:

    vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("BufNewFile", {
        command = "Neorg templates journal",
        pattern = { neorg_dir .. "journal/*.norg" },
    })

[pysan3]

Thanks for trying it out @gegnew !

Added your comment to the README. Thanks for the tip ;)

https://github.com/pysan3/neorg-templates#autoload-with-neorg-journal

[theherk]

Would be super if you could use a template of this nature:

* YYYY-MM-DD - Report
  {:YYYY/MM/DD:* YYYY-MM-[DD-1]}[←] | {:YYYY/MM/DD:* YYYY-MM-[DD+1]}[→]
** Did
** Doing
** Blockers

It seems you could do this with your templates @pysan3 if they included YESTERDAY and TOMORROW. Even still, would be good it this were build directly into the journal module.

[pysan3]

The current builtin method has no dynamic value substitution mechanism and it simply copies the content of the template file into the created journal file as you can see here.

neorg/lua/neorg/modules/core/journal/module.lua

Line 147 in 9a55117

vim.cmd("0read " .. workspace_path .. "/" .. folder_name .. "/" .. template_name .. "| w")

On the other hand, my module uses the LuaSnip snippet engine and dynamically loads values as well as asks for user input on the fly. This method has a huge possibility of extensibility which makes it easy to have YESTERDAY and other keywords, but requires a very complicated implementation, at least a completion engine in order to work properly.

would be good it this were build directly into the journal module.

It would be nice if my module could be ported into the core repo, but since it depends on LuaSnip, people using different snippet engines (e.g. UltiSnips) cannot benefit from this approach and I think it would never happen.

Have you tried my module? If you have any problems using my module, feel free to open an issue over there ;)
If you want to automatically load your journal template after running :Neorg journal command, follow this section. https://github.com/pysan3/neorg-templates#autoload-with-neorg-journal

[edlandm]

I just found a solution that works for me using Neorg's builtin template system.
It appears that when creating a new journal entry, Neorg creates the file, opens it in a buffer, and then reads the template into the file. This was preventing me from applying substitutions with an autocommand on the BufNewFile event (because the file already exists by the time we open it).
But I kept playing with it and realized that the FileReadPost event is indeed triggered, so I am able to apply my substitutions with autocommands for that event.
I plopped this in my ftplugin/norg.vim file and it works!

augroup NORG_JOURNAL
  au!
  au FileReadPost */journal/*.norg 1s/DATE$/\=system("date +'%Y.%m.%d'|tr -d $'\n'")/e
augroup END

[theherk]

@pysan3, I finally got around to giving this a spin, and your plugin works superb. Highly recommend to anybody stumbling upon this.

[maxdiebold]

I had issues with both of the suggestions noted above (but thank you for the direction!). This is the implementation that ended up working for me:

local file_exists_and_is_empty = function(filepath)
  local file = io.open(filepath, "r") -- Open the file in read mode
  if file ~= nil then
    local content = file:read("*all") -- Read the entire content of the file
    file:close() -- Close the file
    return content == "" -- Check if the content is empty
  else
    return false
  end
end

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ "BufNew", "BufNewFile" }, {
  callback = function(args)
    local toc = "index.norg"
    vim.schedule(function()
      if vim.fn.fnamemodify(args.file, ":t") == toc then
        return
      end
      if
        args.event == "BufNewFile"
        or (args.event == "BufNew" and file_exists_and_is_empty(args.file))
      then
        vim.api.nvim_cmd({ cmd = "Neorg", args = { "templates", "fload", "journal" } }, {})
      end
    end)
  end,
  desc = "Load new workspace entries with a Neorg template",
  group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup(augroup, { clear = true }),
  pattern = dir .. "/*.norg",

Edited due to problems with lingering buffers after file deletion.

[gegnew]

A recent update broke my BufNewFile solution; anyone have a simple solution? I'd love something less verbose, but in the meantime, @maxdiebold 's solution, but edited so that it runs (thanks for this!)

    local file_exists_and_is_empty = function(filepath)
        local file = io.open(filepath, "r")   -- Open the file in read mode
        if file ~= nil then
            local content = file:read("*all") -- Read the entire content of the file
            file:close()                      -- Close the file
            return content == ""              -- Check if the content is empty
        else
            return false
        end
    end

    vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ "BufNew", "BufNewFile" }, {
        callback = function(args)
            local toc = "index.norg"

            vim.schedule(function()
                if vim.fn.fnamemodify(args.file, ":t") == toc then
                    return
                end
                if
                    args.event == "BufNewFile"
                    or (args.event == "BufNew" and file_exists_and_is_empty(args.file))
                then
                    vim.api.nvim_cmd({ cmd = "Neorg", args = { "templates", "fload", "journal" } }, {})
                end
            end)
        end,
        desc = "Load new workspace entries with a Neorg template",
        pattern = neorg_dir .. "/diary/*.norg",
    })

[skbolton]

What if template_name option could be a string like it is today or a callback function. Neorg could call the function and pass parameters into it. The function would then return the template text for neorg to write to the buffer.

Easy extension point for 3rd party plugins or users.

[Stimim]

Unfortunately, after some research, my previous comment doesn't work.

1. Neorg don't always call core.dirman.create_file to create new files. For example, following a link to open the file doesn't call create_file.
2. create_file would fire an event file_created, however, the buffer in the event object might be wrong.
   • Maybe this is why create_file is called twice in journal?
3. Because create_file would create a file in the background, and then open it. So we can only receive BufNew event, but not BufNewFile.
4. On the other hand, if I open a new file by following a link in a norg file, then this doesn't call create_file. In this case, both BufNewFile and BufNew event will be fired.

So.. I went back to gegnew's snippet.
But I only check if the current buffer is empty.

local function setup_loading_template_on_new_file()
  local group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup(
    'NeorgLoadTemplateGroup',
    { clear = true }
  )

  local is_buffer_empty = function(buffer)
    local content = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(buffer, 0, -1, false)
    return not (#content > 1 or content[1] ~= '')
  end

  local callback = function(args)
    vim.schedule(function()
      if not is_buffer_empty(args.buf) then
        return
      end

      if string.find(args.file, '/journal/') then
        debug('loading template "journal" ' .. args.event)
        vim.api.nvim_cmd({ cmd = 'Neorg', args = { 'templates', 'fload', 'journal' } }, {})
      else
        debug('add metadata ' .. args.event)
        vim.api.nvim_cmd({ cmd = 'Neorg', args = { 'inject-metadata' } }, {})
      end
    end)
  end

  vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd(
    { 'BufNewFile', 'BufNew', },
    {
      desc = 'Load template on new norg files',
      pattern = '*.norg',
      callback = callback,
      group = group,
    }
  )
end